UKIP ‘has no links to BNP’

UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage has categorically denied his party is racist and said it had “no links or associations” with the far-right British National Party.

He also pledged that anyone who was found to have been a member of the BNP would never be allowed to be a candidate for the party.

Speaking ahead of the local elections next month, he said UKIP were fielding a record number of candidates but he “was not expecting miracles”.

Mr Farage also attempted to shed UKIP’s image as a one-issue party, only concerned with taking Britain out of the EU.

And he attacked Tory leader David Cameron, calling the Conservative Party “Blue Labour”.

“He has given up on selective education, he has given up on the idea of tax cuts. He doesn’t look like a Conservative in any way at all,” Mr Farage said.

In an interview with the GMTV Sunday Programme, Mr Farage said: “Let me be absolutely clear, we are a non-racist, non-sectarian party. You do not need to be racist to believe in border controls, you do not need to be extremist to be patriotic and believe in self-government. We have no links or associations with the BNP whatsoever. Nobody but nobody in UKIP will ever be a candidate for our party, will ever be a branch officer for our party who has previously held BNP membership.”

He went on: “When we first won some seats in the European Parliament back in 1999 attempt after attempt was made to link us with the extreme right, I don’t see that very much anymore.

“What is UKIP all about? It’s about this word independence…it’s about more individual freedom, it’s about more liberty it’s about more self government – both at national and local level. These are not far-right ideas.”

Mr Farage said the party was on the right of the political spectrum “economically”. But he added: “In terms of our attitude towards Government and freedom of the individual, you could probably argue that’s an old-fashioned Liberal position.”